Students in the LGBTQ+ community said they fear President Donald Trump’s attacks on transgender and nonbinary people and rollback of federal sexual orientation and gender protections will threaten their identities.
Trump has signed or repealed about half a dozen executive orders in his first month in office targeting the LGBTQ+ community, including restricting gender-affirming care for people under 19, prohibiting transgender women from competing in women’s sports, declaring male and female as the only genders and stripping away Biden-era laws. LGBTQ+ students and organization leaders said they’re concerned the administration’s plans will repress the expression of their gender and sexual identities but that they will continue to carve out space on campus for the LGBTQ+ community to feel safe and represented.
“Even though things will get hard, use this as a chance to learn more about our history and as a way of finding deeper connection with the community to stand up against the Trump administration, and as always, commuting with our roots of resistance as a queer community,” said David Teittinen, a junior from the San Francisco Bay Area, who identifies as nonbinary.
Late last month, the State Department stopped processing passport applications for people seeking an ‘X’ gender marker and began issuing passports to only male- or female-identifying applicants. Teittinen said leading up to the general election, they were “racing” to change their gender and legal name on government documents from those assigned at birth because they knew there was a “very high risk” they would no longer be able to change it once Trump returned to office.
“I got mine just in time, but also now I’m worried that with a new executive order, does that mean that my X gender passport that I legally got last year, is that now going to be invalid?” Teittinen said.
Teittinen said they are “pretty confident” California will continue to protect transgender and nonbinary rights because its voters traditionally support progressive policies, but they are unsure of whether their birth state of Maryland will revert their birth certificate back to their gender assigned at birth.
Teittinen, who is currently studying abroad in the Netherlands, said they try to stay informed on the Trump administration’s actions while also preserving their mental health. They said they are in a “limbo state” because they worry about returning to the United States next spring if national anti-LGBTQ+ sentiments lead to the community’s further marginalization.
“I don’t know if I’ll be able to come back to the U.S., but the Netherlands also isn’t my home,” Teittinen said. “My housing here has an expiration date, and this country is foreign to me, but America isn’t the country that I knew before last November, so it feels like I’ve also been betrayed by my country.”
Sophomore Vanessa Harris — the president of Kehila GW, an organization for LGBTQ+ Jewish students — said she worries about people living in conservative states whose governments and communities may not accept their identity under the current presidential administration.
“I am really concerned for people who live in red states or have families who don’t offer the support that they would need,” Harris said.
Harris said she feels she must be vocal about these issues in light of Trump’s attacks on LGBTQ+ rights and that Kehila GW will continue to provide a space for LGBTQ+ students to talk and discuss their shared anxieties.
“You’re not alone,” Harris said. “It might be hard, and it probably will be I’m not gonna lie, but I do think it’ll be okay in the end. You just have to keep fighting and keep speaking out.”
Transgender and Nonbinary Students of GW President Thomas Morningstar said they are concerned gender-affirming care may become inaccessible in the District under the Republican-controlled Congress as some lawmakers have proposed repealing the District’s home rule.
“GW is part of D.C.,” Morningstar said. “There’s no protection from any state government, and so those things will directly impact certain care and services here on campus, and so we have to understand that these will directly impact students.”
Morningstar said their group is in the early stages of planning its annual GW programming for Transgender Day of Visibility on March 31. They said the programming will unpack how the transgender and nonbinary community can continue to support each other, along with other “political elements.”
“Understanding that we are living in this world is very important,” Morningstar said.
The organization released a statement two days after Trump declared male and female the only two genders, calling on allies to stand with the LGBTQ+ community against the attacks and reminding transgender and nonbinary students that they matter.
“It was hit out to the people we wanted to hit. It hit especially some of our trans and nonbinary community. We know we got some traction on it, but specifically hitting communities we’re serving,” Morningstar said. “Our purpose of our mission is to serve the trans and nonbinary community of GW.”
Morningstar said many students in the LGBTQ+ community were scared upon Trump’s election, adding that the organization is increasing the frequency of programming to support the transgender and nonbinary community.
“We made it through the AIDS crisis, we made it through many of these crises. We are still actively dealing with these crises,” Morningstar said. “We still must first be sad, scared, angry but then we need to move into action.”
Tye DuSold-O’Connor, an executive board member for TNBS who identifies as transgender, said they are unsure if they can now get a passport that reflects their gender identity due to the new State Department policy, and they may have to “frantically” find ways to access health care under the new administration.
“I fear that now, for the next four years, I’m just going to be on survival and preservation mode, not just for me, but for pretty much any queer and specifically trans person I know,” DuSold-O’Connor said.
DuSold-O’Connor said they hope GW follows through on its commitment to equity and inclusion as stated in the University’s diversity mission and reject any discriminatory policies waged against the LGBTQ+ community.
“I would really hope that they would actually take a stand and maybe show that we deserve to live our full lives in general and specifically at GW,” DuSold-O’Connor said.
Chloe Thompson, a first-year from Texas who identifies as bisexual, said she has noticed Trump’s actions have empowered some people in her home state to target the LGBTQ+ community by slashing tires or placing homophobic stickers on cars of people they believe to be a part of the community.
Thompson said Texas has a “strong undercurrent of silencing” toward LGBTQ+ culture, and she avoids publicly displaying affection to her girlfriend to avoid potential threats of violence.
“Thankfully, I don’t live there anymore, but when I go home for the summer, I can just see myself shrinking, or at least feeling extreme pressure to shrink within myself, and most likely, I won’t speak about it,” Thompson said.
In January, Idaho’s House of Representatives passed a resolution asking the Supreme Court of the United States to reverse Obergefell v. Hodges, the 2015 precedent for federal protections on same-sex marriage. Thompson said the potential overturning of Obergefell was “terrifying,” especially if it reenters a new Supreme Court with a conservative majority.
“What’s happening right now is out of the ordinary, and it’s not the future,” Thompson said. “This is the past clinging, and this is the last people who have lost their control over what they want society to be. This is their last grasp onto power, and they will die, and they will fall out of power, and this is not the end, and this will not be our lives.”
